Adela was silent, but she smiled.
'You'll take your things off, my dear ?' Mrs.Waltham continued.

'Will you go upstairs with Miss Mutimer, Adela ?' But for Mrs.Waltham's persistent geniality the hour which followed would have shown many lapses of conversation.

Alice appreciated at once those 'differences' at which her brother had hinted, and her present frame of mind was not quite consistent with patient humility.

Naturally, she suffered much from self-consciousness; Mrs.Waltham annoyed her by too frequent observation, Adela by seeming indifference.

The delicacy of the latter was made perhaps a little excessive by strain of feelings.
Alice at once came to the conclusion that Dick's future wife was cold and supercilious.